have no reason to think this any great hurt Nay indeed if we consider things aright the Divine Goodness has improved the Fall of Adam to the raising of Mankind to a more happy and perfect state for though Paradise where God placed Adam in Innocence was a happier state of life than this World freed from all the disorders of a mortal Body and from all the necessary cares and troubles of this Life yet you 'll all grant that Heaven is a happier place than an earthly Paradise and therefore it is more for our happiness to be translated from Earth to Heaven than to have lived always in an earthly Paradise You will all grant that the state of good men when they go out of these Bodies before the Resurrection is a happier life than Paradise was for it is to be with Christ as St. Paul tells us which is far better 1. Phil. 23. And when our Bodies rise again from the Dead you will grant they will be more glorious Bodies than Adam's was in Innocence For the first man was of the earth earthy but the second man is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. Adam had an earthly mortal Body tho' it should have been immortal by Grace but at the Resurrection our Bodies shall be fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious Body The righteous shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of the Father that as we have born the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly 1 Cor. 15 49. So that our Redemption by Christ has infinitely the advantage of Adam's Fall and we have no reason to complain That by man came death since by man also came the resurrection of the dead That St. Paul might well magnifie the Grace of God in our Redemption by Christ above his Justice and Severity in punshing Adam's Sin with Death 5. Rom. 15 16 17. But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification For if by one man's offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ. Where the Apostle magnifies the Grace of God upon a fourfold account 1. That Death was the just Reward of Sin it came by the offence of one and was an act of Justice in God whereas our Redemption by Christ is the Gift of Grace the free Gift which we had no just claim to 2. That by Christ we are not only delivered from the effects of Adam's Sin but from the guilt of our own For though the judgement was by one to condemnation the free gift is of many offences unto justification 3. That though we die in Adam we are not barely made alive again in Christ but shall reign in life by one Iesus Christ which is a much happier Life than what we lost in Adam 4. That as we die by one man's offence so we live by one too By the righteousness of one the free gift comes upon all men unto justification of life We have no reason to complain that the Sin of Adam is imputed to us to Death if the Righteousness of Christ purchase for us eternal Life The first was a necessary consequence of Adam's losing Paradise the second is wholly owing to the Grace of God. Thus we see what it is that makes us mortal God did not make Death he created us in a happy and immortal state but by man sin entred into the world and death by sin What ever aversion then we have to Death should beget in us a greater horrour of Sin which did not only at first make us mortal but is to this day both the cause of Death and the Sting of it No degree indeed of Vertue now can preserve us from dying but yet Vertue may prolong our lives and make them happy while sin very often hastens us to the Grave and cuts us off in the very midst of our days An intemperate and lustful man destroys the most vigorous constitution of Body dies of a Feavour or a Dropsie of Rottenness and Consumptions others fall a Sacrifice to private Revenge or publick Justice or a Divine Vengeance for the wicked shall not live out half their days However setting aside some little natural aversions which are more easily conquered and Death were a very innocent harmless nay desirable thing did not Sin give a sting to it and terrifie us with the thoughts of that Judgment which is to follow quarrel not then at the Divine Justice in appointing Death God is very good as well as just in it but vent all your indignation against Sin pull out this sting of Death and then you will see nothing but smiles and charms in it then it is nothing but putting off these mortal Bodies to reassume them again with all the advantages of an immortal Youth It is certain indeed we must die this is appointed for us and the very certainty of our death will teach us that Wisdom which may help us to regain a better Immortality then we have lost SECT II. How to improve this Consideration that we must certainly Die. FOr 1. if it be certain that we must Die this should teach us frequently to think of Death to keep it always in our eye and view For why should we cast off the thoughts of that which will certainly come especially when it is so necessary to the good government of our lives to remember that we must die If we must die I think it concerns us to take care that we may die happily and that depends upon our living well and nothing has such a powerful influence upon the good government of our lives as the thoughts of Death I have already shewed you what Wisdom Death will teach us but no man will learn this who does not consider what it is to die and no man will practise it who does not often remember that he must die but he that lives under a constant sence of Death has a perpetual Antidote against the Follies and Vanities of this World and a perpetual Spur to Vertue When such a man finds his desires after this World enlarge beyond not onely the wants but the conveniencies of Nature Thou Fool says he to himself what is the meaning of all this what kindles this insatiable thirst of Riches why must there be no end of adding House to House and Field to Field is this World thy home is this thy abiding City dost thou hope to take up an eternal Rest here Vain man thou must shortly remove thy dwelling and then whose shall all these things be Death will shortly close thy eyes
for a Man who must die to forfeit an immortal Life to reprieve a mortal and perishing Life for some few years II. As Death which is our leaving this World proves that these present things are not very valuable to us so it proves that they are not the most valuable things in their own natures though we were to enjoy them always it would be but a very mean and imperfect state in comparison of that better Life which is reserved for good Men in the next World. For 1. It is congruous to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that the best things should be the most lasting Wisdom dictates this for it is no more than to give the preference to those things which are best The longest continuance gives a natural preference to things we always value those things most which we shall enjoy longest and therefore to give the longest duration to the worst things is to set the greatest value on them and to teach mankind to prefer them before that which is better What we value most we desire to enjoy longest and were it in our power we would make such things the most lasting which shows that it is the natural sense of mankind that the best things deserve to continue longest and therefore we need not doubt but that infinite Wisdom which made the World has proportioned the continuance of things to their true worth And if God have made the best things the most lasting then the next World in its own intrinsick nature is as much better then this World as it will last longer For this is most agreeable to the Divine Goodness too and Gods love to his Creatures that what is their greatest and truest happiness should be most lasting For if God have made Man capable of different degrees and states of happiness of living in this World and in the next it is an expression of more perfect goodness as it is most for the happiness of his Creatures that the most perfect state of happiness should last the longest for the more perfectly happy we are the more do we experience the Divine Goodness and he is the most perfectly happy who has the longest enjoyment of the best things 2. It seems most agreeable also to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness that where God makes such a vast change in the state of his Creatures as to remove them from this World to the next the last state should be the most perfect and happy I speak now of such Creatures as God designs for happiness for the reason alters where he intends to punish But where God intends to do good to Creatures it seems a very improper method to translate them from a more perfect and happy to a less happy state Every abatement of Happiness is a degree of Punishment and that which those Men are very sensible of who have enjoyed a more perfect Happiness And therefore we may certainly conclude that God would not remove good Men out of this World were this the happiest place Yes you 'l say Death is the Punishment of Sin and therefore it is a Punishment to be removed out of this World which spoils that Argument that this World is not the happiest place because God removes good Men out of it For this is the effect of that curse which was entailed on Mankind for the sin of Adam dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Now I grant Death as it signifies a separation of Soul and Body and the death of both which was included in that Curse was a Curse and a Punishment but not as it signifies leaving this World and living in the next We have some reason to think that though Man should never have died if he had not sinned yet he should not always have lived in this World. Human nature was certainly made for greater things than the enjoyment of sense It is capable of nobler advancements it is related to Heaven and to the World of Spirits and therefore it seems more likely that had Man continued innocent and by the constant exercise of Wisdom and Vertue improved his faculties and raised himself above this body and grown up into the Divine Nature and Life after a long and happy life here he should have been translated into Heaven as Enoch and Elias were without dying For had all Men continued innocent and lived to this day and propagated their kind this little spot of Earth had many Ages since been over-peopled and could not have subsisted without transplanting some Colonies of the most Divine and Purified Souls into the other World. But however that be it is certain that being removed out of this World and living in Heaven is not the Curse This fallen Man had no right to for he who by Sin had forfeited an earthly Paradise could not hereby gain a Title to Heaven Eternal Life is the gift of God through Iesus Christ our Lord it is the reward of good Men of a well spent life in this World of our Faith and Patience in doing and suffering the Will of God it is our last and final State where we shall live for ever and therefore the Argument is still good that this World cannot be the happiest place for then Heaven could not be a reward Though all Men are under the necessity of dying yet if this World had been the happiest place God would have raised good Men to have lived again in this World which he could as easily have done as have translated them to Heaven Now if this World be not the happiest place if present things be not the most valuable as appears from this very consideration that we must leave this World for to this I must confine my discourse at present there are several very good uses to be made of this As 1. To rectifie our Notions about present things 2. To live in expectation of some better things 3. Not to be over-concerned about the shortness of our Lives here 1. To rectify our Notions about present things 'T is our opinions of things which ruin us For what Mankind account their greatest happiness they must love and they must love without bounds or measures And it would go a great way to cure our extravagant fondness and passion for these things could we perswade our selves that there is any thing better But this I confess is a very hard thing for most Men to do because present things have much the advantage of what is absent and future Some who believe another life after this what ever great things they may talk of the other World yet do not seem throughly perswaded that the next World is a happier state than this for I think they could not be so fond of this World if they were And the reason of it is plain because happiness cannot be so well known as by feeling now Men feel the pleasures and happiness of this World but do not feel the happiness of the next and therefore are apt to think that that is the greatest
and Sense to govern our bodily Appetites and Passions to grow indifferent to the Pleasures of Sense to use them for the refreshment and necessities of Nature but not to be over-curious about them not to be fond of enjoying them nor troubled for the want of them never to indulge ourselves in unlawful Pleasures and to be very temperate in our use of lawful ones to be sure we must take care that the Spiritual part that the sense of God and of Religion be always predominant in us and this will be a principle of Life in us a principle of divine Sensations and Joys when this Body shall tumble into Dust. VI. If Death be our putting off these Bodies then the Resurrection from the Dead is the Re-union of Soul and Body the Soul does not die and therefore cannot be said to rise again from the Dead but it is the Body which like Seed falls into the Earth and springs up again more beautiful and glorious at the Resurrection of the Just. To believe the Resurrection of the Body or of the Flesh and to believe another Life after this are two very different things the Heathens believed a future State but never dreamt of the Resurrection of the Body which is the peculiar Article of the Christian Faith. And yet it is the Resurrection of our Bodies which is our Victory and Triumph over Death for Death was the Punishment of Adam's sin and those who are in a separate state still suffer the Curse of the Law Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Christ came to deliver us from this Curse by being made a Curse for us that is to deliver us from Death by dying for us But no man can be said to be delivered from Death till his body rise again for part of him is under the power of Death still while his body rots in the Grave nay he is properly in a state of Death while he is in a state of Separation of Soul and Body which is the true notion of Death And therefore St. Paul calls the Resurrection of the Body the destroying Death 1 Cor. 15. 25 26. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death That is by the Resurrection of the Dead as appears from the whole scope of the place and is particularly expressed 54 55 c. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to pass that saying which is written Death is swallowed up in victory O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but blessed be God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. This is the perfection and consummation of our reward when our Bodies shall be raised incorruptible and glorious when Christ shall change our vile Bodies and make them like to his own most glorious Body I doubt not but good men are in a very happy state before the Resurrection but yet their happiness is not complete for the very state of Separation is an imperfect state because a separate Soul is not a perfect Man a Man by the original Constitution of his Nature consists of Soul and Body and therefore his perfect happiness requires the united glory and happiness of both parts of the whole Man. Which is not considered by those who cannot apprehend any necessity why the Body should rise again since as they conceive the Soul might be as completely and perfectly happy without it But yet the Soul would not be an intire and perfect Man for a Man consists of Soul and Body a Soul in a state of Separation how happy soever otherwise it may be has still this mark of God's displeasure on it that it has lost its body and therefore the Reunion of our Souls and Bodies has at least this advantage in it that it is a perfect restoring of us to the Divine Favour that the badge and memorial of our Sin and Apostacy is done away in the Resurrection of our Bodies and therefore this is called the Adoption viz. the Redemption of our Bodies 8. Rom. 23. For then it is that God publickly owns us for his Sons when he raises our dead Bodies into a glorious and immortal Life And besides this I think we have no reason to doubt but the Reunion of Soul and Body will be a new addition of Happiness and Glory for though we cannot guess what the pleasures of glorified Bodies are yet sure we cannot imagine that when these earthly Bodies are the instruments of so many pleasures a spiritual and glorified Body should be of no use A Soul and Body cannot be vitally united but there must be a sympathy between them and receive mutual impressions from each other and then we need not doubt but that such glorified Bodies will highly minister though in a way unknown to us to the pleasures of a divine and perfect Soul will infinitely more contribute to the divine pleasures of the Mind then these earthly Bodies do to our sensual pleasures That all who have this hope and expectation may as St. Paul speaks earnestly groan within themselves waiting for the adoption even the redemption of our bodies 8. Rom. 23. This being the day of the Marriage of the Lamb this consummates our Happiness when our Bodies and Souls meet again not to disturb and oppose each other as they do in this World where the Flesh and the Spirit are at perpetual Enmity but to live in eternal Harmony and to heighten and inflame each others Joys Now this consideration that Death being a putting off these Bodies the Resurrection of the Dead must be the raising our Bodies into a new and immortal Life and the Reunion of them to our Souls suggests many useful thoughts to us For This teaches us how we are to use our Bodies how we are to prepare them for Immortality and Glory Death which is the separation of Soul and Body is the punishment of Sin and indeed it is the cure of it too for Sin is such a Leprosie as cannot be perfectly cleansed without pulling down the House which it has once infected But if we would have these Bodies raised up again immortal and glorious we must begin the Cleansing and Purification of them here We must be sanctified throughout both in body soul and spirit 1 Thess. 5. 23. Our Bodies must be the Temples of the Holy Ghost must be holy and consecrated places 1 Cor. 6. 19. must not be polluted with filthy Lusts if we would have them rebuilt again by the Divine Spirit after the desolations which Sin hath made Thus St. Paul tells us at large 8. Rom. 10 11 12 13. And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is that divine and holy Nature which we receive from
unknown Happiness of those Joys which now we have such imperfect conceptions of 2. Nor is it on the other hand any encouragement to bad men that the Miseries of the other World are unknown for it is known that God has threatned very terrible Punishments against bad men and that what these punishments are is unknown makes them a great deal more formidable for who knows the power of God's wrath who knows how miserable God can make bad men This makes it a sensless thing for men to harden themselves against the Fears of the other World because they know not what it is And how then can they tell though they could bear up under all known Miseries but that there may be such Punishments as they cannot bear That they are unknown argues that they are something more terrible than they are aquainted with in this World they are represented indeed by the most dreadful and terrible things by Lakes of Fire and Brimstone Blackness of Darkness the Worm that never dieth and the Fire that never goeth out But bad men think this cannot be true in a literal sence that there can be no Fire to burn Souls and torment them eternally Now suppose it were so yet if they believe these Threatnings they must believe that some terrible thing is signified by everlasting Burnings and if Fire and Brimstone serve only for Metaphors to describe these Torments by what will the real Sufferings of the Damned be for the Spirit of God does not use to describe things by such Metaphors as are greater than the things themselves And therefore let no bad man encourage himself in Sin because he does not know what the punishments of the other World are This should possess us with the greater awe and dread of them since every thing in the other World not only the Happiness but the Miseries of it will prove greater not less than we expect CHAP. II. Concerning the Certainty of our Death HAving thus shewed you under what Notions we are to consider Death and what Wisdom we should learn from them I proceed to the second thing the Certainty of Death It is appointed to men once to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it remains it is reserved and as it were laid up for them I believe no man will desire a proof of this which he sees with his eyes one Generation succeeds another and those who live longest at last yeild to the fatal Stroke There were two men indeed Enoch and Elias who did not die as Death signifies the separation of Soul and Body but were translated to Heaven without dying but this is the general Law for Mankind from which none are excepted but those whom God by his Soveraign Authority and for wise Reasons thinks fit to except which have been but two since the Creation and will be no more till Christ comes to Judge the World For then St. Paul tells us those who are alive at Christ's second coming shall not die but shall be changed 1 Cor. 15. 51 52. Behold I shew you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed This is such a Change as is equivalent to Death it puts us in the same state with those who are dead and at the last Judgment rise again SECT I. A Vindication of the Iustice and Goodness of GOD in appointing Death for all Men. BUt before I shew you what use to make of this Consideration that we must all certainly Die let us examine how Mankind comes to be Mortal This was no dispute among the Heathens for it was no great wonder that an earthly Body should die and dissolve again into dust it would be a much greater wonder to see a Body of Flesh and Blood preserved in perpetual youth and vigour without any decays of Nature without being sick or growing old But this is a question among us or if it may not be called a question yet it is what deserves our consideration since we learn from the History of Moses that as frail and brittle as these earthly Tabernacles are yet if Man had not sinned he had not died When God created Man and placed him in Paradise he forbad him to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die 2. Gen. 16 17. And when notwithstanding this threatning our first Parents had eat of it God confirms and ratifies the Sentence Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return 3. Gen. 19. What this Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was is as great a mystery to us as what the Tree of Life was for we understand neither of them which makes some men who would not be thought to be ignorant of any thing to flie to Allegorical Sences but though I would be glad to know this if I could yet I must be contented to leave it a Mystery as I find it That which we are concerned in is that this Sentence of Death and Mortality which was pronounced on Adam fell on all his Posterity As St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. 15. 21 22. That by man came death and in Adam all die And this he does not only assert but prove 5. Rom. 12 13 14. Wherefore by man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned for until the law sin was in the world but sin is not imputed where there is no law nevertheless death reigned from Adam till Moses even over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's trangressions The design of all which is to prove that men die or are mortal not for their own sins but for the sin of Adam Which the Apostle proves by this argument because tho' all men as well as Adam have sinned yet till the giving the Law of Moses there was no Law which threatned Death against Sin but only that Law given to Adam in Paradise which no man else ever did or ever could transgress but he Now sin is not imputed where there is no law That is it is not imputed to any man to death before there is any Law which threatens death against it That no man can be reckoned to die for those sins which no Law punishes with death Upon what account then says the Apostle could those men die who lived between Adam and Moses before the Law was given which threatens death And yet die they all did even those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression who had neither eaten the forbidden Fruit nor sinned against any other express Law threatning death This could be for no other sin but Adam's he
sinned and brought Death into the World and thus Death passed upon all men for his sin notwithstanding they themselves were Sinners for tho' they were Sinners yet that they died was not owing to their own sins because they had not sinned against any Law which threatned death but to the sin of Adam and therefore in a proper sence in Adam all die Now this is thought very hard that the sin of Adam should bring death upon all his Posterity that one man sinned and all men must die and therefore I suppose no man will think it improper to my present Argument to give you such an account of this matter as will evidently justifie the Wisdom and Goodness as well as the Justice of GOD in it I. In the first place then I observe that an immortal Life in this World is not the original Right of earthly Creatures but was wholly owing to the Grace and Favour of God. I call that an original Right which is founded in the Nature of things for otherwise properly speaking no Creatures have any right either to being or to subsistance which is a continuance in being It is the Goodness and the Power of God which both made the World and upholds and sustains all things in being And therefore Plato confesses that the inferiour Gods those immortal Spirits which he thought worthy of Divine Honours were both made by the Supreme God and did subsist by his Will for He who made all things can annihilate them again when he pleases and therefore their Subsistence is as much owing to the Divine Goodness as their Creation But yet there is a great difference between the natural gift and bounty of God and what is supernatural or above the nature of things What God makes by nature immortal so that it has no principles of Mortality in its constitution Immortality may be said to be its natural Right because it is by nature immortal as Spirits and the Souls of Men are And in this case it would be thought very hard that a whole race of immortal Beings should be made mortal for the sin of one which would be to deprive them of their natural Right to Immortality without their own fault But when any Creature is immortal not by Nature but by supernatural Grace God may bestow this supernatural Immortality upon what conditions he pleases and take the forfeiture of it when he sees fit and this was the case of Man in Innocence His Body was not by Nature immortal for a Body made of Dust will naturally resolve into Dust again and therefore without a supernatural power an earthly Body must die for which reason God provided a remedy against Mortality the Tree of Life which he planted in Paradise and without which man could not be immortal so that Mortality was a necessary consequence of his losing Paradise for when he was banished from the Tree of Life he could have no Remedy nor Preservative against Death Now I suppose no man will question but God might very justly turn Adam out of Paradise for his disobedience and then he must die and all his Posterity die in him for he being by Nature mortal must beget mortal Children and having forfeited the Tree of Life he and his Posterity who are all shut out of Paradise with him must necessarily die Which takes nothing from them to which any man had a right for no man had a natural right to Paradise or the Tree of Life but only leaves them to those Laws of Mortality to which an earthly Creature is naturally subject God had promised Paradise and the Tree of Life to no man but to Adam himself whom he created and placed in Paradise and therefore he took nothing away from any man but from Adam when he thrust him out of Paradise Children indeed must follow the condition of their Parents had Adam preserved his right to the Tree of Life we had enjoyed it too but he forfeiting it we lost it in him and in him die We lost I say not any thing that we had a right to but such a supernatural Priviledge as we might have had had he preserved his Innocence and this is a sufficient Vindication of the Justice of God in it He has done us no injury we are by nature mortal Creatures and he leaves us in that mortal state and to withdraw favours upon a reasonable provocation is neither hard nor unjust II. For we must consider farther when Sin was once entred into the World an immortal Life here became impossible without a constant series of Miracles Adam had sinned and thereby corrupted his own nature and therefore must necessarily propagate a corrupt nature to his Posterity His earthly Passions were broke loose he now knew good and evil and therefore was in the hands of his own counsel to refuse or choose the good or evil and when the Animal Life was once awakned in him there was no great dispute which way his affections would incline To be sure it is evident enough in his Posterity whose boisterous passions act such Tragedies in the World. Now suppose in a state of Innocence that the Tree of Life would have preserved men immortal when no man would injure himself nor another when there was no danger from wild Beasts or an intemperate Air or poisonous Herbs yet I suppose no man will say but that even in Paradise itself could we suppose any such thing Adam might have been devoured by a Beast or killed with a Stab at the Heart or had there been any Poison there it would have killed him had he eaten or drunk it or else he had another kind of Body in Paradise than we have now for I am sure that these things would kill us Consider then how impossible it is that in this fallen and apostate State God should preserve Man immortal without working Miracles every minute Mens passions are now very unruly and they fall out with one another and will kill one another if they can of which the World had a very early example in Gain who slew his Brother Abel and all those Murders and bloody Wars since that day put this matter out of doubt Now this can never be prevented unless God should make our Bodies invulnerable which a body of flesh and blood cannot be without a Miracle some die by their own hands others by wild Beasts others by evil Accidents and there are so many ways of destroying these brittle Bodies that it is the greatest wonder that they last so long and yet Adam's body in Paradise was as very Earth and as brittle as our Bodies are but all this had been prevented had men continued innocent they would not then have quarrelled or fought they would not have died by their own hands nor drunk themselves into a Feavour nor over-loaded Nature with riotous Excesses there had been no wild Beasts to devour no infectious Air or poisonous Herbs and then the Tree of Life would have repaired all the decays of Nature
and preserved a perpetual Youth but in this state we are now the Tree of Life could not preserve us immortal if a Sword or Poison can kill which shews us how impossible it was but that Sin and Death must come into the World together Man might have been immortal had he never sinned but brutish and ungovern'd passions will destroy us without a Miracle And therefore we have no reason now to quarrel at the Divine Providence that we are mortal for in the ordinary course of Providence it is impossible it should be otherwise III. Considering what the state of this World necessarily is since the Fall of Man an immortal Life here is not desireable No state ought to be immortal if it be designed as an act of favour and kindness but what is completely happy but this World is far enough from being such a state Some few years give wise men enough of it tho' they are not oppressed with any great Calamities and there are a great many Miseries which nothing but Death can give relief to This puts an end to the sorrows of the Poor of the Oppressed of the Persecuted it is a Haven of Rest after all the Tempests of a troublesome World it knocks off the Prisoners Shackles and sets him at liberty it dries up the Tears of the Widdows and Fatherless it cases the complaints of a hungry Belly and naked Back it tames the proudest Tyrants and restores Peace to the World it puts an end to all our Labours and supports men under their present Adversities especially when they have a prospect of a better life after this The labour and the misery of Man under the Sun is very great but it would be intolerable were it endless and therefore since Sin is entred into the World and so many necessary miseries and calamities attend it it is an act of Goodness as well as Justice in God to shorten this miserable life and transplant good men into a more happy as well as immortal State. IV. Since the Fall of Man Mortality and Death is necessary to the good Government of the World nothing else can give check to some mens Wickedness but either the fear of Death or the execution of it some men are so outragiously wicked that nothing can put a stop to them and prevent that mischief they do in the World but to cut them off This is the reason of capital punishments among men to remove those out of the World who will be a plague to Mankind while they live in it For this reason God destroyed the whole Race of Mankind by a Deluge of Water excepting Noah and his Family because they were incurably wicked For this reason he sends Plagues and Famines and Sword to correct the exorbitant growth of Wickedness to lessen the numbers of Sinners and to lay restraints on them And if the World be such a Bedlam as it is under all these restraints what would it be were it filled with immortal Sinners Ever since the Fall of Adam there always was and ever will be a mixture of good and bad men in the World and Justice requires that God should reward the Good and punish the Wicked But that cannot be done in this World for these present external Enjoyments are not the proper Rewards of Vertue There is no complete Happiness here man was never turned into this World till he sinned and was flung out of Paradise which is an argument that God never intended this World for a place of Reward and perfect Happiness nor is this World a proper place for the final punishment of bad Men because good Men live among them and without a Miracle bad Men cannot be greatly punished but good Men must share with them and were all bad Men punisht to their deserts it would make this World the very Image and Picture of Hell which would be a very unfit place for good Men to live and to be happy in As much as good Men suffer from the Wicked in this World it is much more tolerable then to have their ears filled with the perpetual cries of such miserable Sinners and their eyes terrified with such perpetual and amazing executions Good and bad Men must be separated before the one can be finally rewarded or the other punished and such a separation as this cannot be made in this World but must be reserved for the next So that considering the fallen State of Man it was not fitting it was not for the good of Mankind that they should be immortal here Both the Wisdom and Goodness and Justice of God required that Man should die which is an abundant Justification of this divine Decree That it is appointed for men once to die V. As a farther Justification of the Divine Goodness in this we may observe that before God pronounced that Sentence on Adam Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return he expresly promised that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head 3. Gen. 15. In his Curse upon the Serpent who beguiled Eve I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Which contains the promise of sending Christ into the World who by death should destroy him who had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage i. e. before he denounces the Sentence of Death against Man he promises a Saviour and Deliverer who should triumph over Death and raise our dead Bodies out of the dust immortal and glorious Here is a most admirable mixture of Mercy and Judgment Man had forfeited an earthly Immortality and must die but before God would denounce the Sentence of Death against him he promises to raise up his dead Body again to a new and endless Life And have we any reason to complain then that God has dealt hardly with us in involving us in the sad consequences of Adam's Sin and exposing us to a temporal Death when he has promised to raise us from the Dead again and to bestow a more glorious Immortality on us which we shall never lose When Man had sinned it was necessary that he should die because he could never be completely and perfectly happy in this World as you have already heard and the only possible way to make him happy was to translate him into another World and to bestow a better Immortality on him This God has done and that in a very stupendious way by giving his own Son to die for us and now we have little reason to complain that we all die in Adam since we are made alive in Christ to have died in Adam never to have lived more had indeed been very severe upon Mankind but when death signifies only a necessity of going out of these Bodies and living without them for some time in order to re-assume them again immortal and glorious we
him This is very reasonable when the fear of God and men is opposed to each other which is the only case our Saviour supposes No man ought foolishly to fling away his life nor to provoke and affront Princes who have the power of Life and Death this is not to die like a Martyr but like a Fool or a Rebel But when a Prince threatens Death and God threatens Damnation then our Saviour's counsel takes place not to fear men but God for indeed God's power in this is equal to mens at least men can kill for men are mortal and may be killed and this is only for a mortal Creature to die a little out of order but God can kill too and thus far the case is the same It is true most men are of the mind in such a case rather to trust God then men because he does not always punish in this World nor execute a speedy vengeance And yet when our Saviour takes notice that God kills as well as men it seems to intimate to us that such Apostates who rather chuse to provoke God then men may meet with their deserts in this World for no man is secure that God will not punish him in this World and Apostates of all others have least reason to expect it Those who renounce God for fear of men are the fittest persons to be examples of a sudden Vengeance But then when men have killed they can do no more they cannot kill the Soul and here the power of God and men is very unequal for when he has killed he can cast both Body and Soul into Hell fire This is a very formidable power indeed and we have reason to fear him but the power of men who can only kill a mortal Body is not very terrible it ought not to fright us into any sin which will make us obnoxious to that more terrible Power which can destroy the Soul. CHAP. III. Concerning the Time of our Death and the proper Improvement of it LEt us now consider the time of our Death which is once but when uncertain Now when I say the time of our Death is uncertain I need not tell you that I mean only it is uncertain to us that is that no man knows when he shall die for God certainly knows when we shall die because he knows all things and therefore with respect to the foreknowledge of God the time of our Death is certain Thus much is certain as to Death that we must all die and it is certain also that Death is not far off because we know our lives are very short before the Flood men lived many hundred years but it is a great while now since the Psalmist observed that the ordinary term of humane life had very narrow bounds set to it The days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we flie away 90. Psal. 10. There are some exceptions from this general Rule but this is the ordinary period of humane life when it is spun out to the greatest length and therefore within this term we may reasonably expect it for in the ordinary course of Nature our Bodies are not made to last much longer Thus far we are certain but then how much of this time we shall run out how soon or how late we shall die we know not for we see no age exempted from Death some expire in the Cradle and at their Mother's Breasts others in the heat and vigour of youth others survive to a decrepit age and it may be follow their whole Family to their Graves Death very often surprizeth us when we least think of it without giving us any warning of its approach and that is proof enough that the time of our Death is unknown and uncertain to us But these things deserve to be particularly discoursed and therefore with reference to the time of our Death I shall observe these four things not so much to explain them for most of them are plain enough of themselves as to improve them for the government of our lives I. That the general Period of Humane Life which is the same thing with the Time of our Death is fixt and determin'd by God. II. That the particular time of every Man's Death though it be foreknown by God who foreknows all things yet it does not appear that it is peremtorily decreed and determined by God. III. That the particular time when any of us shall die is unknown and uncertain to us IV. That we must die but once It is appointed for all men once to die SECT I. That the general Period of Humane Life is fixt and determin'd by GOD and that it is but very short I. THat the general Period of Humane Life which is the same thing with the Time of our Death is fixt and determin'd by God That is there is a time set to humane Life beyond which no man shall live as Iob speaks 14 Job 5. His days are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass Which does not refer to the period of every particular man's life but is spoken of Man in general that there are fixt bounds set to humane Life which no man can exceed What these bounds are God has not expresly declared but that must be learnt from Observation Such a time as most commonly puts a period to mens lives who live longest may generally pass for the common measure of humane Life though there may be some few exceptions Before the Flood no man lived a thousand years and therefore we may conclude that the longest term of humane Life after the Sentence of Death was passed on man was confined within a thousand years Methusalah who was the longest liver lived but nine hundred sixty nine years and he died so that no man ever lived a thousand years And comparing this Observation with that Promise of a thousand years reign with Christ which is called the first Resurrection and is the portion only of Martyrs and Confessors and pure and sincere Christians 20 Revel I have been apt to conclude that to live a thousand years is the priviledge only of immortal Creatures that if Adam had continued innocent he should have lived no longer on Earth but have been translated to Heaven without dying for this thousand 's years reign of the Saints with Christ whatever that signifies seems to be intended as a reparation of that Death which they fell under by Adam's sin but then these thousand years do not put an end to the happiness of these glorious Saints but they are immortal Creatures and though this reign with Christ continues but a thousand years their happiness shall have no end though the Scene may change and vary for over such men the second death hath no power Or else this thousand years reign with Christ must
Heaven Nothing but the hopes and fears of the next World can enforce these Duties on us and this justifies the wisdom and goodness of God in making the present exercise of these Vertues necessary to our future Rewards I shall only add that whatever complaints bad Men may make that their future Happiness or Misery depends upon the government and conduct of their Lives in this World I am sure all Mankind would have had great reason to complain if it had been otherwise For how miserable must it have made us to have certainly known that we must be eternally happy or eternally miserable in the next World and not to have as certainly known how to escape the Miseries and obtain the Hapâ—iness of it And how could that be possibly known if the trial of it had been reserved for an unknown state What a terrible thing had it been to die could no Man have been sure what would have become of him in the next World as no Man could have been upon this supposal for how can any Man know what his reward shall be when he is so far from having done his work that he knows not what he is to do till he comes into the next World. But now since we shall be rewarded according to what we have done in this Body every Man certainly knows what will make him happy or miserable in the next World and it is his own fault if he do not live so as to secure immortal Life and what a blessed state is this to have so joyful a prospect beyond the Grave and to put off these Bodies with the certain hopes of a glorious Resurrection This I think is sufficient to vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in making this present Life a state of trial and probation for the happiness of the next But to proceed 2. If this Life only be our state of trial and probation for Eternity then Death as it puts a final period to this Life so it puts a final end to our work too our day of Grace and time of Working for another World ends with this Life We shall easily apprehend the necessity of this if we remember that Death which is the punishment of Sin is not meerly the death of the Body but that state of Misery to which Death translates Sinners and therefore if we die while we are in a state of Sin under the Curse and under the power of Death there is no Redemption for us because the Justice of God has already seiz'd us the Sentence is already executed and that is too late to obtain a Pardon for in this case Death answers to our casting into Prison from whence we shall never come forth till we have paid the uttermost Farthing as our Saviour represents it 5 Matt. 25 26 for indeed Sin is the death of the Soul and those who are under the power of Sin are in a state of Death and if they die before they have a principle of a new Life in them they fall under the power of Death that is into that state of Misery and Punishment which is appointed for such dead Souls and therefore our redemption from Death by Christ is begun in our dying to Sin and walking in newness of Life which is our conformity to the Death and the Resurrection of Christ 6 Rom. 4. This is to be dead to sin and to be alive to GOD as Christ is and if we die with Christ we shall rise with him also into immortal Life which is begun in this World and will be perfected in the next which is the sum of St. Paul's argument v. 6 7 8 9 10 11. thus he tells us 8 Rom. 10 11. If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness That is our Bodies are mortal and must die by an irreversible Sentence which God pronounc'd against Adam when he had sinned but the Soul and Spirit has a new principle of Life a principle of Righteousness and Holiness by which it lives to God and therefore cannot fall into a state of Death when the Body dies But if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you That is when the divine Spirit has quicken'd our Souls and raised them into a new Life though our Bodies must die yet the same divine Spirit will raise them up also into immortal Life This is the plain account of the matter If Death arrests us while we are in a state of Sin and Death we must die for ever but if our Souls are alive to God by a principle of Grace and Holiness before our Bodies die they must live for ever A dead Soul must die with its Body that is sink into a state of Misery which is the death and the loss of the Soul a living Soul survives the Body in a state of Bliss and Happiness and shall receive its Body again glorious and immortal at the Resurrection of the Just but this change of state must be made while we live in these Bodies a dead Soul cannot revive in the other World nor a living Soul die there and therefore this Life is the day of God's Grace and Patience the next World is the place of Judgment And the reason St. Peter gives why God is not hasty in executing judgment but is long suffering to us ward is because he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3. 5. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews exhorts them Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts as in the provocation in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me proved me and saw my works forty years Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said They do alway err in their hearts and they have not known my ways So I swear in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest There is some dispute what is meant by to day whether it be the day of this Life or such a fixt and determin'd day and season of Grace as may end long before this Life The example of the Israelites of whom God swear in his wrath that they should die in the Wilderness and never enter into his Rest that is into the Land of Canaan seems to incline it to the latter sence for this sentence That they should not enter into his Rest was pronounc'd against them long before they died for which reason they wandered forty Years in the Wilderness till all that Generation of Men were dead and if we are concern'd in this example then we also may provoke God to such a degree that he may pronounce the final sentence on us That we shall never enter into Heaven long before we leave this World Our day of Grace may
IMPRIMATUR Z. Isham R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. Ã Sacris Septemb. 11 1689. A Practical Discourse CONCERNING DEATH BY WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Master of the TEMPLE LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street MDCLXXXIX To the Worshipful THE MASTERS of the BENCH And the rest of the Members of the two Honourable Societies OF THE TEMPLE My much Honoured Friends ONE reason of Publishing this Plain Discourse is because I cannot now Preach to you as formerly I have done and have no other way left of discharging my Duty to You but by making the Press supply the place of the Pulpit Part of this You have already heard and should have heard the rest had I enjoyed the same Liberty still which God restore to me again when He sees fit if not His will be done And the only reason of this Dedication is to make this publick and thankful Acknowledgment before I am forced from You if I must be so Unhappy of Your Great Respects and many singular Favours to me which have been always so free and generous that they never gave time nor left any room for me to ask especially that obliging Welcome You gave me at my first coming I mean Your Present of a House which besides the Conveniencies and Pleasure of a Delightful Habitation has afforded me that which I value much more the frequent opportunities of Your Conversation Though I am able to make You no better Return than Thanks I hope that Great MASTER whom I serve will and that GOD would multiply all Temporal and Spiritual Blessings on You is and always shall be the sincere and hearty Prayer of GENTLEMEN Your Most Obliged and Humble Servant W. Sherlock THE CONTENTS THe Introduction Page 1 CHAP. I. The several Notions of Death and the Improvement of them 4 SECT I. The first Notion of Death that it is our leaving this World with the Improvement of it 6 SECT II. The second Notion of Death that it is our putting off these Bodies 35 SECT III. Death considered as our entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life 69 CHAP. II. Concerning the Certainty of our Death 89 SECT I. A Vindication of the Iustice and Goodness of God in appointing Death for all Men 92 SECT II. How to improve this Consideration that we must certainly die 110 CHAP. III. Concerning the time of our Death and the proper Improvement of it 125 SECT I. That the general Period of Humane Life is fixt and determined by God and that it is but very short 128 SECT II. What little reason we have to complain of the Shortness of Humane Life 184 SECT III. What Use to make of the fixt Term of Humane Life 144 SECT IV. What Use to make of the Shortness of Humane Life 162 SECT V. The time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death are not determined by an Absolute and Unconditional Decree 185 SECT VI. The particular time when we are to die is unknown and uncertain to us 196 SECT VII That we must die but Once or that Death translates us to an unchangeable State with the Improvement of it 234 CHAP. IV. Concerning the Fear of Death and the Remedies against it 328 The Conclusion 351 ERRATA PAge 130. l. 8. for unreasonable read unanswerable p. 214. l. 13. r. at present A Practical Discourse CONCERNING DEATH 9 Hebrews 27. It is appointed for Men once to die The INTRODUCTION THere is not a more effectual way to revive the True Spirit of Christianity in the World than seriously to meditate on what we commonly call the four last things Death Judgment Heaven and Hell For it is morally impossible men should live such careless lives should so wholly devote themselves to this World and the service of their Lusts should either cast off the fear of God and all reverence for his Laws or satisfie themselves with some cold and formal Devotions were they possest with a warm and constant sense of these things For what manner of Men ought we to be who know that we must shortly die and come to Judgment and receive according to what we have done in this World whether it be good or evil either eternal Rewards in the Kingdom of Heaven or eternal Punishments with the Devil and his Angels That which first presents it self to our thoughts and shall be the Subject of this following Treatise is Death a very terrible thing the very naming of which is apt to chill our Blood and Spirits and to draw a dark veil over all the Glories of this Life And yet this is the condition of all Mankind we must as surely die as we are born For it is appointed unto Men once to die This is not the Original Law of our Nature for though Man was made of the dust of the Earth and therefore was by nature Mortal for that which is made of dust is by nature corruptible and may be resolved into dust again yet had he not sinned he should never have died he should have been immortal by Grace and therefore had the Sacrament of Immortality the Tree of Life Planted in Paradise But now by Man Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned 5 Rom. 12. and thus it is decreed and appointed by God by an irreversible Sentence dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return Now to improve this Meditation to the best advantage I shall 1. Consider what Death is and what Wisdom that should teach us 2. The certainty of our Death that it is appointed unto Men once to die 3. The time of our death it must be once but when we know not 4. The natural fears and terrors of Death or our natural aversions to it and how they may be allayed and sweetned CHAP. I. The several Notions of Death and the Improvement of them 1. WHat Death is and I shall consider three things in it 1. That it is our leaving this World. 2. Our putting off these earthly Bodies 3. Our entrance into a New and Unknown state of Life for when we die we do not fall into nothing or into a profound sleep into a state of silence and insensibility till the Resurrection But we only change our place and our dwelling we remove out of this World and leave our Bodies to sleep in the Earth till the Resurrection but our Souls and Spirits live still in an invisible State. I shall not go about to prove these things but take it for granted that you all believe them For that we leave this World and that our Bodies rot and putrifie in the Grave needs no proof for we see it with our eyes and that our Souls cannot die but are by nature Immortal has been the belief of all Mankind The Gods which the Heathens Worshipped were most of them no other but dead Men and therefore they did believe that the Soul survived the Funeral of the
Christ will secure the life of our Souls and translate us to a happy state after death but it will not secure us from the necessity of dying Our Bodies must die as a punishment of Sin and putrifie in the Grave but yet they are not lost for ever for if the spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Iesus from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you that is if your Bodies be cleansed and sanctified be the Temples of the Holy Spirit he will raise them up again into a new Life Therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live If ye subdue the fleshly principle if ye bring the Flesh into subjection to the Spirit not only your Souls shall live but your Bodies shall be raised again to immortal Life And this is a mighty obligation on us if we love our Bodies and would have them glorious and immortal not to pamper the Flesh and gratifie its appetites and lusts not to yeild your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity but to yeild your members servants to righteousness unto holiness that being made free from sin and becoming the servants of God ye may have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life As the same Apostle speaks 6. Rom. 19 22. it is our relation to Christ that our very Bodies are his Members it is our relation to the Holy Spirit that our Bodies are his Temples which entitles our Bodies to a glorious Resurrection But will Christ own such Bodies for his Members as are Members of a Harlot Will the Holy Spirit dwell in such a Temple as is defiled with impure Lusts And therefore such polluted Bodies will rise as they lay down in Dishonour will rise not to immortal Life but to eternal Death For can we think those Bodies well prepared for a glorious Resurrection to be refined into spiritual Bodies which are become ten times more Flesh than God made them which are the Instruments and the Tempters to all Impurity Is there any reason to expect that such a Body should rise again spiritual and glorious which expires in the flames of Lust which falls a Sacrifice in the quarrel of a Strumpet which sinks under the load of its own Excesses and Eats and Drinks itself into the Grave which scorns to die by Adam's sin but will die by its own without expecting till the Laws of Mortality according to the ordinary course of Nature must take place Holiness is the only principle of Immortality both to Soul and Body Those love their Bodies best those honour them most who make them instruments of Vertue who endeavour to refine and spiritualize them and leave nothing of fleshly appetites and inclinations in them those are kindest to their Bodies who consecrate them for Immortality who take care they shall rise again into the Partnership of eternal Joys All the severities of Mortification abstinence from bodily pleasures watchings Fastings hard lodging when they are instruments of a real Vertue not the arts of Superstition when they are intended to subdue our Lusts not to purchase a liberty of sinning are the most real expressions of honour and respect to these Bodies It shews how unwilling we are to part with them or to have them miserable how desirous we are of their advancement into eternal Glories for the less of Flesh they carry to the Grave with them the more glorious will they rise again This is offering up our Bodies a living Sacrifice when we intirely devote them to the service of God and such living Sacrifices shall live for ever for if God receives them a living Sacrifice he will preserve them to immortal Life But the highest honour we can do these Bodies and the noblest use we can put them to is to offer them up in a proper sence a Sacrifice to God that is willingly and chearfully to die for God when he calls us to suffering first to offer up our Souls to God in the pure flames of Love and Devotion and then freely to give up our Bodies to the Stake or to the Gibbet to wild Beasts or more savage Men. This vindicates our Bodies from the natural shame and reproach of Death what we call a natural Death is very inglorious it is a mark of dishonour because it is a punishment of Sin Such Bodies at best are sown in dishonour and corruption as St. Paul speaks but to die a Martyr to fall a Sacrifice to God this is a glorious Death this is not to yeild to the Laws of Mortality to Necessity and Fate but to give back our Bodies to God who gave them to us and he will keep that which we have committed to his trust to a glorious Resurrection and it will be a surprizing and astonishing Glory with which such Bodies shall rise again as have suffered for their Lord for if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified together Which seems to imply that those shall nearest resemble the Glory of Christ himself who suffer as he did This is the way to make our Bodies immortal and glorious We cannot keep them long here they are corruptible Bodies and will tumble into Dust we must part with them for a while and if ever we expect and desire a happy meeting again we must use them with modesty and reverence now We dishonour our Bodies in this World when we make them instruments of Wickedness and Lust and lay an eternal foundation of shame and infamy for them in the next World it is a mortal and killing love to cherish the fleshly Principle to make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but if you love your Bodies make them immortal that though they die they may rise again out of their Graves with a youthful vigour and beauty that they may live for ever without pain or sickness without the decays of age or the interruptions of sleep or the fatigue and weariness of labour without wanting either food or raiment without the least remains of corruptions without knowing what it is to tempt or to be tempted without the least uneasie thought the least disappointment the least care in the full and blissful enjoyment of the Eternal and Soveraign Good. SECT III. Death considered as our Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life III. LEt us now consider Death as it is an Entrance upon a new and unknown State of Life for it is a new thing to us to live without these Bodies it is what we have never tried yet and we cannot guess how we shall feel ourselves when we are stript of Flesh and Blood what entertainments we shall find in that place where there is neither eating nor drinking neither marrying nor giving in marriage what kind of
of an universal Empire through a long series of Events or meditate changes and alterations of Government of the Laws and Religion of a Nation by insensible steps and methods which though it were never so hopeful a project they can't hope to live to see effected and therefore exceed their own bounds and trouble the World at present with what no body now living may ever be concerned in they undertake to govern the World when they are dead and gone whereas every Age brings forth new Projects and Counsels as it does a new generation of Men and new scenes of Affairs and a new set of Politicians Would but men confine their cares and projects within the bounds of their own lives and mind only what concerns themselves and their own times and they would live more at ease and the World enjoy more peace and quiet than now it is ever likely to do And yet one would think this very reasonable not to concern our selves about the World any longer than we are like to live in it to do no injury to Posterity as near as we can and to do what good we can for them without disturbing the present Peace and good Government of the World but to leave the care of the next Age to those who shall succeed and to that good Providence which governs and takes care of all Ages and Generations of Men. 2. Since we know the common Period of humane Life we should frequently count our days and observe how our lives wast and draw near to Eternity Our time slides away insensibly and fow men take notice how it goes they find their strength and vigour continues without any decay and they reckon upon living threescore and ten or fourscore years but seldom consider that it may be thirty or forty years are already gone that is the best half of their lives they put a cheat upon themselves by computing the whole duration of their lives without considering how much of this is already past and how little of it is to come which if men would seriously think of they would not be so apt to flatter themselves with a long life for no man accounts twenty or thirty years a long life and that is the most they have to live now though they should attain to the longest period of humane life much less could they flatter themselves with a long life when they could not probably reckon above fifteen or ten years to come And would men observe how their life shortens every day this if any thing would make them grow chary of their time and begin to think of living that is of minding the true ends and purposes of life of doing the work for which they came into the World and which they must do before they die or they are miserable for ever 3. When men draw near the end of their reckoning nay it may be are past the common reckoning of Mankind it more especially concerns them to apply themselves to a more serious and solemn preparation for Death for how vigorous soever their age is Death cannot be far off it will be unpardonable in them to be deceived with the hopes of living much longer who have already attained to the common period of humane Life and are in the borders and confines nay in the very quarters of Death and have already if I may so speak borrowed some years from the other World. Now when I speak of such mens preparing for Death I do not mean that they should then begin to think of dying that is a great deal of the latest to begin such a work though if they have not done it before it is without doubt high time to begin it then in the last minute of their lives and to do what they can in that little time that remains to obtain their Pardon of God for spending a long life in Sin and Vanity and in a Forgetfulness of their Maker and Redeemer But that which I now intend concerns those who have thought of dying long before and govern'd their lives under the conduct and influence of such thoughts and therefore are not wholly unprepared for Death but are ready to welcome it whenever it comes but there is a decent way of meeting Death which becomes such men which I call a more solemn Preparation for it that is when their condition and circumstances of life will permit it to take a timely leave of the World and to withdraw from the noise and business of it when they are placed just in the confines of both Worlds to direct their face wholly to that World whither they are a going to spend the little remains of their lives in conversing with themselves with God and with the other World. 1. In conversing with themselves which God knows very few men do while they are engaged in the business of this World the cares of Life or the pleasures of it our Families or our Friends or Strangers themselves take us from ourselves and therefore it is fit before men go out of this World that they should recover the possession of themselves and grow a little more acquainted and intimate with themselves retire from the World to take a more thorough review of their lives and actions what they have still to do to make their peace with God and their own Consciences whether there be any sin which they have not thoroughly repented of and heartily begged God's pardon for any injury they have done their Neighbour for which they have not made sufficient restitution and reparation whether they have any quarrel with any man which is not composed and reconciled whether there is any part of their Duty which they have formerly too much neglected as Charity to the Poor the wise Education and Instruction of their Children and Families and to apply themselves to a more diligent discharge of it what distempers there are in their minds which still need to be rectified what Graces are weakest what Passions are most disorderly and unmortified and to apply proper remedies to them This is an excellent preparation for Death because it will give us great hope and assurance in dying it gives us peace and satisfaction in our own minds by a thorough knowledge of our own state and by rectifying whatever was amiss it delivers our Consciences from guilty fears and so disarms Death of its sting and terrors for the sting of Death is Sin and when this sting is pulled out we have nothing else to contend with but some little natural aversions to dying which are more easily conquered 2. Thus in this preparatory Retirement from the World we should spend great portions of our time in the Worship of God in our publick or private Devotions for commonly men of business are very much in Arrears with God upon this account in their active Age they had little time to spare or little mind to spare it for the uses of Religion and therefore we may well retire some time before we die to
by an absolute and unconditional Decree II. THough God who knows all things does know also the time and manner and circumstances of every particular Man's Death yet it does not appear that he has by an absolute and unconditional Decree fixed and determined the particular time of every Man's Death This is that famous Question which Beverovicius a learned Physitian was so much concerned to have resolved and consulted so many learned men about as supposing it would be a great injury to his Profession did men believe that the time of their Death was so absolutely determined by God that they could neither die sooner nor live longer then that fatal Period whether they took the Advice and Prescriptions of the Physicians or not But this was a vain fear for there are some Speculations which men never live by how vehemently soever they contend for them A Sceptick who pretends that there is nothing certain and will dispute with you as long as you please about it yet will not venture his own arguments so far as to leap into Fire or Water nor to stand before the mouth of a loaded Canon when you give fire to it Thus men who talk most about fatal Necessity and absolute Decrees yet they will eat and drink to preserve themselves in health and take Physick when they are sick and as heartily repent of their sins and vow amendment and reformation when they think themselves a dying as if they did not believe one word of such absolute Decrees and fatal Necessity as they talk of at other times I do not intend to engage in this Dispute of Necessity and Fate of Prescience and absolute Decrees which will be Disputes as long as the World lasts unless men grow wiser than to trouble themselves with such Questions as are above their reach and which they can never have a clear notion and perception of but all that I intend is to shew you according to the Scripture account of it that the Period of our Lives is not so peremptorily determined by God but that we may lengthen or shorten them live longer or die sooner according as we behave ourselves in this World. Now this is very plain from all those places of Scripture where God promises long life to good Men and threatens to shorten the lives of the Wicked 91 Psal. 16. With long life will I satisfie him and shew him my salvation Solomon tells us of Wisdom Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honours 3 Prov. 16. The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned 10 Prov. 27. Thus God has promised long life to those who honour their Parents in the fifth Commandment and the same promise is made in more general terms to those who observe the Statutes and Commandments of God 4 Deut. 40. Upon the same condition God promised long life to King Solomon 1 Kings 3. 14. And if thou wilt walk in my ways to keep my statutes and commandments as thy father David did walk then will I lengthen thy days The same is supposed in David's Prayer to God not to take him away in the midst of his days 102 Psal. 24. And in 55 Psal. 23. he tells us That bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days Now one would reasonably conclude from hence that God has not absolutely and unconditionally determined the fatal period of every Man's life because he has conditionally promised to prolong Mens lives or threatned to shorten them for what place can there be for conditional Promises where an absolute Decree is past How can any man be said not to live out half his days if he lives as long as God has decreed he shall live for if the period of every particular Man's life be determined by God none are his days but what God has decreed for him As for matter of fact it is plain and evident both that men shorten their own lives and that God shortens them for them and that in such a manner as will not admit of an absolute and unconditional Decree Thus some men destroy a healthful and vigorous constitution of body by intemperance and lust and do as manifestly kill themselves as those who hang or poison or drown themselves and both these sorts of men I suppose may be said to shorten their own lives and so do those who rob or murder or commit any oother villany which forfeits their lives to publick Justice or quarrel and fall in a Duel and the like and yet you will no more say that God decreed and determined the death of these men then he did their sin Thus God himself very often shortens the lives of men by Plague and Famine and Sword and such other Judgments as he executes upon a wicked World and this must be confest to be the effect of God's counsel and decrees as a Judge decrees and pronounces the death of a Malefactor but this is not an absolute and unconditional decree but is occasioned by their sins and provocations as all Judgments are they might have lived longer and escaped these Judgments had they been vertuous and obedient to God for if they should have lived no longer whether they had sinned or not their death by what judgments soever they are cut off is not so properly the execution of Justice as of a peremtory Decree their lives are not shortned but their fatal period is come Indeed unless we make the Providence of God not the government of a wise and free Agent who acts pro re nata and rewards and punishes as men deserve as the Scripture represents it but an unavoidable execution of a long series of fatal and necessary Events from the beginning to the end of the World as the Stoicks thought we must acknowledge that in the government of free Agents God has reserved to himself a free liberty of lengthning or shortning mens lives as will best serve the ends of Providence for if we will allow Man to be a free Agent and that he is not under a necessity of sinning and deserving to be cut off at such a time or in such a manner the application of rewards and punishments to him must be free also or else they may be ill applied he may be punished when he deserves to be rewarded the fatal period of life may fall out at such a time when he most of all deserves long life and when the lengthning his life would be a publick Blessing to the World. Fatal and necessary Events can never be fitted to the government of free Agents no more than you can make a Clock which shall strike exactly for time and number when such a man speaks let him speak when or name what number he pleases And yet there is nothing of greater moment in the government of the World than a free power and liberty of lengthning or shortning mens lives for nothing more over-aws Mankind and keeps them more in
only makes us lock and bar our Doors and provide for our own defence thus to expect Death is not to live under the perpetual fears of dying but to live as a wise man would do who knows not that he must but that he may die to day That is to be always prepared for Death not to defer our repentance and return to God one moment not to commit any wilful sin least Death should surprize us in it not to be slothful and negligent but to be always imployed in our Master's business according to our Saviour's counsel 12 Luke 35 c. Let your loyns be girded about and your lamps burning and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching And this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not suffered his house to be broken through Be ye therefore ready also for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not This our Saviour also warns us of in the Parable of the wise and foolish Virgins 25 Mat. while the Bridegroom tarried they all slept but the wise Virgins they presently arose and trimmed their Lamps and went in with him to the Marriage and the door was shut the foolish Virgins had no Oyl and their Lamps were gone out and while they went to buy Oyl they were shut out and could afterwards procure no admission Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh This is the danger of a sudden Death and the reason why our Church prays against it for were we always in a preparation to die with our Lamps trimmed and burning like Virgins who expect the Bridegroom to die then without notice without fear and apprehension without the melancholy solemnities of dying were a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most desirable way of dying but the danger of a sudden Death is that men are surprized in their sins and hurried away to Judgment before their accounts are ready that they are snatched out of this World before they have made any provision for the next and the only way to prevent this is to be always upon our watch always in expectation of Death and always prepared for it Some men think themselves very safe if after an age of Sin and Vanity they have but so much notice of Death as to ask God's pardon upon a sick Bed to confess and bewail the wickedness of their past lives to die in horrors and agonies of mind which they call repentance but indeed are nothing else but the sad presages of an awakened Conscience distracted with its own guilt and the terrible expectations of vengeance But though this be a very comfortless way of dying and I fear generally very hopeless too yet no man can promise himself so much as this who does not live in a constant expectation of Death We may be cut off by a sudden stroke or seized with distraction or stupidness that if only asking God pardon before we die would save our Souls we could not do it And this is the case of so many Sinners that it should be a warning to all men who know not when nor how or in what manner they must die ought to be ready prepared against all accidents and surprizing events 3. Since the time of our Death is so very uncertain it concerns us to improve our present time because no time is ours but what is present I observed before that the shortness of our lives though we were to live to the utmost extent of them threescore and ten or fourscore years was a sufficient reason to lose none of our time but to improve it to the best and wisest purposes and the surest way to lose none of our time is to improve the present time and there is a plain necessary reason why we should do that because our lives are uncertain and therefore no time is ours but what is present The time past was ours but that is gone and we can never recal it nor live it over again if we have spent it well we shall find it ours still in our account but it is no longer our time to live and act in the time to come may be ours and it may not because we know not whether we shall live to it and therefore we cannot reckon upon it the time present is ours and that is the only time that is ours and therefore if we will improve our time we must improve our present time we must live to day and not put off living till to morrow All Mankind are sensible of the necessity and prudence of this in all other matters excepting the concernments of their Souls An Epicurean Sensualist is for the present gratification of his lusts Vive hodie is his Motto Let us eat and drink for to morrow we die Men who are intent upon increasing Riches and advancing their Fortune and Honors are for taking the present time and opportunity to do it Indeed setting aside the consideration of the uncertainty of our lives there are some things which a wise man will not delay or put off to another time when he has opportunity to do it at present What is necessary to be done he will do as soon as he can the very first moment that it becomes necessary if opportunity serves What is necessary every day he will not put off from one day to another but will do it every day as eating and drinking and sleeping are What he resolves to do and may as well do at present and is as fit to be done at present as at any other time he will do at present What may suffer by delays he will do the first time he can do it What is proper for some peculiar times and seasons he will do when those times and seasons come as the Husbandman observes the seasons for sowing and reaping the Tradesman his Markets and Fairs What is of present use and convenience to him what he takes great pleasure in or what he mightily longs for and desires he will by no means delay but is for doing it present Now all these are very weighty reasons why we should take care of our Souls repent of our Sins live in the practise of all Christian Graces and Vertues and do all the good we can at present but much more when we consider that our lives are so uncertain that we may have no other time to do any thing of this in but what is present For 1. is any thing of more absolute necessity than the Salvation of our Souls This is that one thing needful the Salvation of our Souls is needful as a necessary end and the practise of true Religion needful as subservient to that end If to escape eternal
the objects only of a subordinate fear or hope when the fear of man comes in competition with the fear of God it is wise counsel which the Prophet Isaiah gives Say ye not A confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say A confederacy neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid Sanctifie the Lord God of Hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread and he shall be for a sanctuary 8 Isai. 12 13 14. There is a vast difference between the power of God and men which is our Saviour's reason why we should fear God more than men Be not afraid of them who can kill the body and after that have no more that they can do but I will forewarn ye whom ye shall fear Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say unto you fear him 12 Luke 4 5. But whatever power men may have to hurt while they live they can do us no hurt when they are dead and their lives are so very uncertain that we may be quickly eased of those fears The same may be said with respect to hope and confidence in men though their word and promise were always sacred yet their lives are uncertain Their breath goeth forth they return to the earth in that very day their thoughts perish all the good and all the evil they intended to do But happy is he that hath the God of Iacob for his help whose hope is in the Lord his God which made heaven and earth the sea and all that therein is who keepeth truth for ever 146 Psal. 5. 6. 6. For a conclusion of this Argument I shall briefly vindicate the wisdom and goodness of God in concealing from us the time of our Death This we are very apt to complain of that our lives are so very uncertain that we know not to day but that we may die to morrow and we would be mighty glad to meet with any one who could certainly inform us in this matter how long we are to live but if we think a little better of it we shall be of another mind For 1. though I presume many of you would be glad to know that you shall certainly live twenty or thirty or forty years longer yet would it be any comfort to know that you must die to morrow or some few months or a year or two hence which may be your case for ought you know and this I believe you are not very desirous to know for how would this chill your blood and spirits how would it overcast all the pleasures and comforts of life You would spend your days like men under the sentence of Death while the execution is suspended Did all men who must die young certainly know it it would destroy the industry and improvements of half Mankind which would half destroy the World or be an insupportable mischief to Humane Societies For what man who knows that he must die at twenty or five and twenty a little sooner or later would trouble himself with ingenious or gainful Arts or concern himself any more with this World than just to live so long in it and yet how necessary is the service of such men in the World what great things do they many times do and what great improvements do they make how pleasant and diverting is their conversation while it is innocent how do they enjoy themselves and give life and spirit to the graver Age how thin would our Schools our Shops our Universities and all places of Education be did they know how little time many of them were to live in the World for would such men concern themselves to learn the Arts of living who must die as soon as they have learnt them Would any Father be at a great expence in educating his Child only that he might die with a little Latine and Greek Logick and Philosophy No half the World must be divided into Cloysters and Nunneries and Nurseries for the Grave Well you 'll say suppose that and is not this an advantage above all the inconveniencies you can think of to secure the salvation of so many thousands who are now eternally ruined by youthful Lusts and Vanities but would spend their days in Piety and Devotion and make the next World their only care if they knew how little while they were to live here Right I grant this might be a good way to correct the heat and extravagancies of Youth and so it would be to shew them Heaven and Hell but God does not think fit to do either because it offers too much force and violence to mens minds it is no trial of their vertue of their reverence for God of their conquests and victory over this World by the power of Faith but makes Religion a matter of necessity not of choice now God will force and drive no man to Heaven the Gospel-Dispensation is the trial and discipline of ingenuous Spirits and if the certain hopes and fears of another World and the uncertainty of our living here will not conquer these flattering temptations and make men seriously religious as those who must certainly die and go into another World and they know not how soon God will not try whether the certain knowledge of the time of their death will make them religious That they may die young and that thousands do so is reason enough to engage young men to expect death and prepare for it if they will venture they must take their chance and not say they had no warning of dying young if they eternally miscarry by their wilful delays And besides this God expects our youthful service and obedience though we were to live on till old Age that we may die young is not the proper much less the only reason why we should remember our Creator in the days of our youth but because God has a right to our youthful strength and vigour and if this will not oblige us to an early Piety we must not expect that God will set death in our view to fright and terrifie us as if the only design God had in requiring our obedience was not that we might live like reasonable Creatures to the glory of their Maker and Redeemer but that we might repent of our sins time enough to escape Hell. God is so merciful as to accept of returning Prodigals but does not think fit to encourage us in Sin by giving us notice when we shall die and when it is time to think of repentance 2dly Though I doubt not but that it would be a great pleasure to you to know that you shall live till old Age yet consider a little with yourselves and then tell me whether you yourselves can judge it wise and fitting for God to let you know this I observed to you before what danger there is in flattering ourselves with the hopes of long life that it is apt to make us too fond of this World when we expect to live
so long in it that it weakens the hopes and fears of the next World by removing it at too great a distance from us that it encourages men to live in sin because they have time enough before them to indulge their Lusts and to repent of their Sins and make their Peace with God before they die and if the uncertain hopes of this undoes so many men what would the certain knowledge of it do Those who are too wise and considerate to be imposed on by such uncertain hopes might be conquered by the certain knowledge of a long life This would take off all restraints from men and give free scope to their vicious inclinations when they know that how wicked soever they were they should not die before their time was come and could never be surpiz'd by Death since they certainly knew when it will come which destroys one great motive to Obedience that Sin shall shorten Mens lives and that Vertue and Piety shall prolong them That the wicked shall not live out half their days that the fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortned 10 Prov. 27. Such promises and threatnings as these must be struck out of the Bible should God let all men know the time of their death Nay this would frustrate the methods and designs of Providence for the reclaiming Sinners some times publick Calamities Plague and Famine and Sword alarum a wicked World and summon Men to repentance sometimes a dangerous fit of Sickness awakens Men into a sence of their sins and works in them a true and lasting repentance but all this would be ineffectual did Men know the time of their death and that such publick Judgments or threatning Sickness should not kill them The uncertainty of our Lives is a great motive to constant Watchfulness to an early and persevering Piety but to know when we shall die could serve no good end but would encrease the wickedness of Mankind which is too great already which is a sufficient Vindication of the Wisdom of God in leaving the time of Death unknown and uncertain to us SECT VII That we must Die but once or that Death translates us to an unchangable State with the Improvement of it THe last thing to be consider'd is That we must die but once It is appointed for men once to die There are some exceptions from this Rule as there are from dying that as Enoch and Elias did not die so some have been raised again from the Dead to live in this World and such men died twice But this is a certain Rule in general That as all men must die once so they must die but once which needs no other proof but the daily experience and observation of Mankind But that which I intend by it is this That once dying determines our state and condition for ever when we put off these mortal Bodies we must not return into them again to act over a new part in this World and to correct the errours and miscarriages of our former lives Death translates us to an immutable and unchangeable state that in this sence what the wise man tells us is true If the tree fall towards the south or toward the north in the place where the tree falleth there it shall be 11 Eccles. 3. This is a consideration of very great moment and deserves to be more particularly explain'd which I shall do in these following Propositions 1. That this life is the only state of trial and probation for Eternity And therefore 2. Death when ever it comes as it puts a final period to this life that we die once for all and must never live again as we do now in this World so it puts a final end to our work too that our day of grace and time of working for another World ends with this life And 3dly As a necessary consequence of both these once dying puts us into an immutable and unchangeable state 1. That this life only is our state of trial and probation for Eternity whatever is to be done by us to obtain the favour of God and a blessed Immortality must be done in this life I observed before that this life is wholly in order to the next that the great the only necessary business we have to do in this World is to fit and prepare ourselves to live for ever in GOD's presence To finish the work GOD has given us to do that we may receive the reward of good and faithful Servants to enter into our Master's rest I now add that the only time we have to do this in is while we live in this World This is evident from what S. Paul tells us That we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5. 10. Now if we must be judged and receive our final sentence according to what we have done in the body then our only time of trial and working is while we live in these Bodies for the future Judgment relates only to what is done in the Body The Gospel of Christ is the Rule whereby we must be judged even that Gospel which St. Paul preached 2 Rom. 16. and all the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel concern the government of our Conversation in this World and therefore if we be judged by the Gospel we must be judged only for what we have done in this World. This life throughout the Scripture is represented as the time of working as a Race a Warfare a labouring in the Vineyard the other World as a place of Recompence of Rewards or punishments and if there be such a relation between this World and the next as between fighting and conquering and receiving the Crown as between running a race and obtaining a prize as between the work and the reward then we must fight and conquer run our race and finish our work in this World if we expect the Rewards of the next Many of those Graces and Vertues which our Saviour has promised to reward with eternal Life can be exercised only in this World Faith and Hope are peculiar only to this Life while the other World is absent and unseen And these are the great Principles and Graces of the Christian Life to believe what we do not see and to live and act upon the hopes of future Rewards the government of our bodily appetites and passions by the rules of Temperance Sobriety and Chastity necessarily supposes that we have Bodies and bodily Appetites and Passions to govern and therefore these Vertues can be exercised only while we live in these Bodies which solicite and tempt us to sensual Excesses To live above this World to despise the tempting Glories of it is a Vertue only while we live in it and are tempted by it to have our Conversation in Heaven which is the most divine temper of Mind is
God if he sincerely repent of his sins and reform his life but it only proves that a wicked ungodly Christian who prefers the pleasures and enjoyments of this World before the hopes of Heaven and defiles his Soul with impure and worldly Lusts what pretences soever he may make to the Blessing or how importunate soever he may be for it shall receive no Blessing from God that is that without holiness no man shall see God which is the very thing the Apostle intended to prove by this example as you may see v. 14. I grant the case is different as to Churches and Nations sometimes their day of Grace is fixt and determin'd beyond which without Repentance they shall no longer enjoy the light of the Gospel Thus the appearance of Christ in the Flesh and his preaching the Gospel to them was the last trial of Ierusalem and determin'd the fate of that beloved City and therefore when Christ rode into Ierusalem in order to his Crucifixion When he was come near he beheld the city and wept over it Saying if thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes For the days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee and compass thee round and keep thee in on every side and shall lay thee even with the ground and thy children within thee and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation 19 Luke 41 c. And this our Saviour warned them of before 12 Joh. 35 36. Yet a little is the light with you walk while ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth While ye have light believe in the light that ye may be the children of light Which signifies that unless they believed on him while he was with them they must be utterly destroyed The kingdom of God should be taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof as he proves by the Parable of the Housholder who planted a Vineyard 21 Mat. 33 c. And this was in some measure the case of the seven Churches of Asia to whom St. Iohn directed his Epistles to summon them to repentance and to threaten them with the removal of the Candlestick if they did not repent The judgments of God in the overthrow of some flourishing Churches and in transplanting the Gospel from one Nation to another are very mysterious and unsearchable but as for particular persons who enjoy the light of the Gospel unless they shorten their day of Grace themselves God does not shorten it as long as they live in this World they are capable of Grace and Mercy if they truly repent 2. Men may shorten their own Day of Grace not by shortning the time of Grace and Mercy for that lasts as long as this Life does but by out-living the possibility of Repentance and when they are past Repentance their Day of Grace is at an end and this may be much shorter than their lives that is Men may so harden themselves in sin as to make their Repentance morally impossible and God in his just and righteous Judgments may give up such Men to a state of Hardness and Impenitence Every degree of love to Sin proportionably enslaves Men to the practice of it makes repentance as uneasie and difficult as it is to pluck out a right eye and cut off a right hand 5 Mat. 29 30 as painful as dying as crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts which few Men will submit to 8 Rom. 13. 3 Col. 5. An habit and custom of sin turns into nature and is as difficultly altered as nature is Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil 13 Jer. 23. Some sins are of such a hardening nature that few men who are once entangled by them can ever break the snare such as Adultery or the love of strange Women of whom Solomon tells us Her house inclineth unto death and her paths unto the dead none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the paths of life 2 Prov. 18 19. Covetuousness is such another hardening sin that our Saviour tells us It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into heaven those who love and those who trust in their riches 10 Matth. 23 24 25. Those who have been once enlightned and fall back again into Infidelity who have been instructed in the reasons of Faith and the motives of Obedience who have had the heavenly Seed of God's Word sown in their hearts but have not brought forth the Fruits of it are near the Curse of barren Ground which drinketh in the Dews and Rain of Heaven and brings forth briars and thorns which is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burnt 6 Heb. 4 5 6 7 8. When Men obstinately resist the perpetual motions and solicitations of the holy Spirit he withdraws from them and gives them up to their own counsels as we leave off perswading those who will not be perswaded And when the spirit of God forsakes such Men the evil Spirit seizeth them that Spirit which ruleth in the Children of Disobedience 2 Eph. 3. for the World is divided into the Kingdom of Darkness and the Kingdom of Light 1 Col. 13 and those who are not under the government of the Divine Spirit are led captive by the Devil at his will 2 Tim. 2. 6 and therefore our Saviour hath taught us to pray to be delivered from Evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Evil One that is from the Devil for that is a hopeless state when God gives us up to the government of evil Spirits Nay when Men harden themselves in sin they are rejected by the good Providence of God which secures good Men from or delivers them out of Temptations as our Saviour has taught us to pray Lead us not into temptation as a Father keeps a watchful eye over a dutiful Child to preserve him from any harm and to choose the most proper condition and circumstances of life for him but suffers a Prodigal to go where he pleases and undo himself as fast as he can And whoever considers the weakness and folly of humane Nature and the power of Temptations must needs conclude that Man given up to ruine who is rejected by the good Spirit of God and cast out of the care of his Providence Into this miserable state Men may bring themselves by sin which though it does not make them uncapable of Mercy if they do repent yet it makes it morally impossible that they should repent It is this the Apostle to the Hebrews warns them against from the example of the Hardness and Infidelity
done but once for their whole lives especially if the happiness of their whole lives depends on it for no errour can be corrected in what is to be done but once and certainly we have much more reason to prepare to die once which translates us to an immutable state of Happiness or Misery This ought to be the work and business of our whole lives to prepare for Death which comes but once but that once is for Eternity What unpardonable folly is it for any Man to be surprized by Death to fall into the Grave without thinking of it To commit a mistake which may be retrieved again to be guilty of some neglect and inadvertency when the hurt we suffer by it may be repair'd by future diligence and caution is much more excusable because it is not so fatal and irreparable a folly In this case experience may teach wisdom and wisdom is a good purchase though we may pay dear for it but a wise Man will use great caution in making an experiment which if it fail will cost him his life because that can never be tried a second time and experience is of no use in such things as can be done but once And this is the case of dying we can die but once and if we miscarry that once we are undone for ever And what considering Man would make such dangerous experiments as Sinnres do every day when their Souls are the price of the experiment Who would try how long Death will delay its coming how long he may sin on safely without thinking of Death or Judgment whether Death will give him timely notice to repent or whether God will give him grace to repent if it does Who would venture the infinite hazards of a Death-bed-repentance whether after a long life of sin and wickedness a few distracted confused and almost despairing sighs and groans will carry him to Heaven If such bold Adventurers as these when they have discovered their mistake and folly could return back into this World and live over their lives again the hazard were not so great but this is an experiment not to be twice made If they sin on till they harden themselves in sin and are forsaken of the Grace of God if Death comes long before they expected and cut them off by surprize and without warning if their dying and despairing Agonies and Horrours should not prove a true godly Sorrow not that repentance to salvation never to be repented of they are lost to Eternity And what wise Man would expose his Soul to such a hazard as this Who would not take care to make his Calling and Election sure before Death comes and in a matter of such infinite concernment wherein one miscarriage is irreparable to prevent danger at a distance 2dly We hence learn how necessary it is for those who begin well to persevere unto the end It is the conclusion of our lives which determines our future state as God expresly tells us by his Prophet Ezekiel 18 Ezek. 21 24. If the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die all his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall he live all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespass that he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die And throughout the New Testament the reward is promised only to those who continue to the end And what I have now discoursed gives a plain account of this for our whole life is a state of trial and probation and if we leave off before our work be done if we stop or run backwards before we come to the end of our race we must lose our reward our crown the Christian Life is a state of Warfare and we know the last Battel gives the final Conquest and this cannot be otherwise because what comes last undoes what went before when a wicked Man turns from his wickedness and does good God in infinite Mercy thro' the Merits and Mediation of Christ will forgive his sins because he has put them away from him and undone them by repentance and a new life when a righteous Man turns from his righteousness and does wickedly his righteousness shall be forgotten because he has renounced it and parted with it and is a righteous Man no longer Now when God comes to judge the World he will judge Men as he then finds them he will not inquire what they have been but what they are he will not condemn a righteous Man because he has been wicked nor justifie a wicked Man because he has been righteous for this would be to punish the Righteous and to reward the Wicked Such as we are when we die such we shall continue for ever and therefore it is the last scene of our lives which determines our future state And should not this make us very jealous and watchful over ourselves To take heed lest there be in any of us an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living GOD. Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of GOD lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled lest after we have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ we are again entangled therein and overcome and it happen to us according to the true proverb The dog is turned to his vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire This as the same Apostle tells us makes our latter end worse than the beginning for it had been better for us not to have known the way of righteousness than after we have known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to us Let those consider this who have been blessed with a religious Education and trained up in the exercises of Piety and Vertue who have preserved themselves from the pollutions of youthful Lusts and spent their vigorous age in the service of God Can you be contented to lose all these hopeful beginnings to lose all your triumphs and victories over the World and the Flesh When you have out-rid all the storms and hurricanes of a tempting World for so many Years will you suffer yourselves to be shipwracked in the Haven When you are come within view of the promised Land will you suffer your hearts then to fail you will you then murmur and rebel against God and die in the Wilderness There has been a very warm Dispute about the Perseverance of Saints Whether those who are once in a state of Grace shall always continue so I will not undertake
a direct contradiction to justifying Faith nay if the justifying act of Faith were an actual reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation Despair must be very mortal because while Men are under these Agonies they do not they cannot rely on Christ for Salvation for they believe that Christ has cast them off and will not save them but if to believe in Christ that he is the Saviour of the World that he has made expiation for our Sins and intercedes for us at the right hand of God and is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto God by him that he will save all true penitent Sinners and will save us if we be true Penitents I say if such a Faith as this when it brings forth the genuine fruits of Repentance and a holy Life be a true justifing Faith this is consistent with the blackest Despair and then Men may be in a justified state though they are never so strongly perswaded that they are Reprobates A very good Man may have his fancy disturbed and may pass a false judgment upon himself but this is no reason for God to condemn him no more than God will justifie a presuming and enthusiastick Hypocrite because he justifies himself 4. If Death put a final end to our Work and Labour and shuts up our Accounts then it concerns us to do all the good that we can while we live What ever our hand findeth to do we should do it with all our might seeing there is no wisdom nor knowledge nor working in the grave whither we are hasting Not that the next World is an idle and unactive State where we shall know nothing and have nothing to do but Death puts an end to our working for the other World nothing can be brought to our account at the Day of Judgment but the good we do while we live here for this onely we shall receive our reward proportionable to the encrease and wise improvement of our Talents And is not this a good reason why we should begin to serve God betimes and to take all opportunities of doing good since we have only a short life to work in for Eternity There are great and glorious rewards prepared for good Men but those shall have the brightest Crown who do the most good in the World who are rich in good works and lay up for themselves treasures in heaven Indeed the meanest place in Heaven is a happiness too great for us to conceive I 'm sure much greater than our greatest deserts but since our bountiful Lord will reward all the good service we do why should we neglect doing any good when such neglects will lessen our reward why should we be contented to lose any degrees of Glory This is a holy Ambition to be as good and to be as happy as God can make us This is never thought of by those Men who have no greater designs than to escape Hell but as for the Glories of Heaven they can be contented with the least share of them No Man will ever get to Heaven who so despises the Glories of it and if a late repentance should open our eyes not only to see our sins but to alter our opinions of this World and of the next yet we can never recal our past time and that little time that remains which is the very dregs and sediment of our lives the dead and unactive Scene will minister very few opportunities of doing good and if it did we are capable of doing very little and if we get to Heaven that will be all but the bright and triumphant Crowns shall be bestowed upon those who have improved their time and their talents better It is the good we do while we live that shall be rewarded and therefore we must take care to do good while we live It is well when Men who do no good while they live will remember to do some good when they die But if God should accept such presents as these yet it will make great abatements in the account that they kept their Riches themselves as long as they could and would part with nothing to God till they could keep it no longer it is not the Gift but the mind of the Giver that is accepted Under the Gospel God is pleased with a living Sacrifice but the Offerings of the Dead and such these Testimentary Charities are which are intended to have no effect as long as we live are no better than dead Sacrifices and it may be questioned whether they will be brought into the account of our lives if we did no good while we lived The case is different as to those who did all the good they could while they lived and when they saw they could live no longer took care to do good after death such surviving Charities as these prolong our lives and add daily to our account when such Men are removed into the other World they are doing good in this would still they have a Stock a going below the increase and improvements of which will follow them into the other World Men who have been charitable all their lives may prolong their Charity after death and this will be brought to the Account of their Lives but I cannot see how a Charity which commences after death can be called doing good while we live and then it cannot belong to the Account of our Lives all that can be said for it is this That they make their Wills whereby they bequeath these Charities while they live and therefore their bequeathing these Charities is an act of their Lives but they never intend they shall take place while they live but after their death and when they never intend their Charity to be an act of their Lives I know not why God should account it so These Death-bed Charities are too like a Death-bed Repentance Men seem to give their Estates to God and the Poor just as they part with their Sins when they can keep them no longer This is much such a Charity as it is Devotion to bequeath our dead Bodies to the Church or Chancel which we would never visit while we lived But yet as I have already intimated this is the only way to prolong our Lives and to have an increasing Account after death to lay the foundations of some great good to the World which shall out live us which like Seed sown in the Earth shall spring up and yeild a plentiful Harvest while we sleep sweetly in the dust such as the religious Education of our Children and Families which may propagate itself in the World and last many Ages after we are dead the Endowment of Publick Schools and Hospitals in a word whatever is for the Relief of the Necessities or for the Instruction and good Government of Mankind when we are gone To do good while we live and to lay designs of great good to future Generations will both come into our Account and this may extend the Account of our
the greatest Sinners to Baptism and justifying them by the Blood of Christ and what the Gospel requires of baptized Christians to continue in this justified State In the first case nothing is required but Faith and Repentance upon which account we are so frequently said to be justified by faith not by the deeds of the law to be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus to be saved by grace thro' faith not of works least any man should boast And I believe upon inquiry it will be found that Justification by Faith always relates to this Baptismal Justification when by Baptism we are received into Covenant with God and into a justified State only for the sake of Christ and through Faith in his Blood which one thing well considered would put an end to most of the Disputes about Justification and about Faith and Works which I cannot explain now but shall only observe that the constant opposition between Justification by the Faith of Christ and Justification by Circumcision and the Works of the Law to the observation of which they were obliged by Circumcision is a manifest proof that Justification by Faith is our Justification by the Faith of Christ in Baptism which is our admission into the Christian Church makes us the Members of Christ and the Children of God which is a state of Grace and Justification as Circumcision formerly made them God's peculiar People in Covenant with him which is the Justification of Circumcision and Justification by Faith and Justification by Circumcision would not be duly opposed if they did not relate to the same kind of Justification that is that Justification which is the immediate effect of our being in Covenant with God. But now when we are justified by a general Repentance and Faith in Christ at Baptism we also vow a conformity to the Death of Christ by dying to sin and walking in newness of life that is we vow an universal Obedience to all the Laws of Righteousness which the Gospel requires of us as Circumcision made them debtors to the whole law which is the reason why the Works of the Law and that Evangelical Righteousness which the Faith of Christ requires of us are so often opposed in this Dispute the one the Righteousness of the Law or of Works the other the Righteousness of Faith and therefore as Circumcision could not justifie those who transgressed the Law no more will Faith justifie those who disobey the Gospel but the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Now the necessary consequence of this is that meer Sorrow for Sin and the meer Vows and Resolutions of Obedience without actual Holiness and Obedience of Life according to the terms and conditions of the Gospel will not save a baptized Christian for meer Sorrow for Sin and Vows of Obedience will be accepted only in Baptism but when we are baptized we must put our Vows in execution or we fall from our Baptismal Grace and Justification and therefore when we relapse into Sin after Baptism no Repentance will be accepted but that which actually reforms our lives for Baptismal Grace is not ordinarily repeated no more than we can repeat our Baptism This I take to be the true meaning of that very difficult place 6 Heb. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of GOD and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of GOD afresh and put him to open shame This severe passage occasioned some dispute about the Canonical Authority of this Epistle for it was thought that the Apostle here excluded all Men from the benefit of Repentance who fell into sin again after Baptism but it is certain this is not the Apostle's meaning nor do the words import any such Doctrine but his meaning is either that Men who have been baptized and thoroughly instructed in the Christian Religion may sin themselves into an impossibility of Repentance which is the most ordinary interpretation of the words and which sence I gave before of them and is in part the true sence though I think not the whole or that Men after Baptism may fall into such a state as nothing can deliver them out of but Baptismal Grace and Regeneration and since Baptism cannot be repeated the state of such Men is hopeless and desperate according to the terms of the Gospel however God may deal with them by a Soveraign and Prerogative Grace for tho' we can expect and rely on no other Grace but what God has promised in his Gospel yet God does not absolutely confine himself nor must we confine his Grace and this he tells us is the case of all Apostates from the Christian Faith The understanding of this is necessary to my present purpose and therefore I shall briefly explain it 1. That the Apostle here speaks of persons who were baptized is plain from the words Those who were once enlightned the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are those who have been once baptized for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the ancient Writers signifies Baptism as Iustin Martyr himself tells us in his second Apology that Baptism is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Illumination because their minds are enlightned by it and being once enlightned plainly refers it to Baptism which can be administred but once and what follows proves this to be the meaning of it and have tasted of the heavenly gift that is saith St. Chrysostom received remission of Sins in Baptism and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost the Holy Spirit being given at Baptism and have tasted of the good word of GOD been instructed in the Doctrines of the Gospel which in the Apostolick Age immediately followed Baptism for Men were then admitted to Baptism immediately upon their profession of Repentance and Faith in Christ and were afterwards instructed in the Christian Religion and the powers of the world to come that is those miraculous Gifts and Powers which were bestowed on the Apostles for a confirmation of the Faith of Christ and which most Christians did in some degree or other partake of in Baptism This is a plain Description of Baptism with the effects and consequents of it 2. That he speaks of such as after Baptism totally Apostatize from the Faith of Christ is as plain for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those who fall away From what from their Christian Profession which they made at their Baptism that is who renounce the Faith of Christ and turn Iews or Heathens again for these Men crucify to themselves the Son of GOD afresh and put him to open shame that is they declare him to be an Impostor
as the Iews did when they crucified him which is as much crucifying him again and exposing him to publick shame and infamy as they can possibly do But now this Description can relate only to total Apostates for whatever sins professed Christians are guilty of though thereby they reproach their Lord and Saviour yet they do not declare him to be an Impostor who justly suffered on the Cross and whom they would condemn to the same ignominious Death again if they could nay those who are conquered by some powerful and surprizing fears to deny Christ as Peter did or to offer Sacrifice to Idols as many Christians did under the Heathen Persecutions and recover themselves again by Repentance are not included in this severe Sentence for such Men do really believe in Christ still do not heartily renounce their Baptismal Faith and therefore do not lose their Baptism though in word and deed at present they deny Christ the case of such Men is very dangerous for our Saviour tells us Whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven 10 Mat. 33. Those who through fear of Men persist in such a denial shall not be saved by a secret and dissembled Faith for we must not only believe in Christ but we must openly profess our Faith in him but such Men may be recovered by Repentance and by a bold Confession of Christ in new Dangers and Temptations these are lapsed Christians but not Apostates as Iulian was who hated the Name and Religion of Christ and therefore they were admitted to Repentance in the Christian Church as not having lost their Baptismal Faith though through fear they denied it 3. Of these total Apostates the Apostle tells us That it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom renders it to make them new Creatures again by Baptismal Repentance for so he tells us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that to be renewed is to be made new which can be done only by Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism only can make us new Creatures The danger then of these Mens case as the Apostle represents it is this That they having totally Apostatized from the Faith of Christ together with their Faith have lost their Baptism and are become Iews and Pagans again now Iews and Pagans can never be made Christians without Baptism wherein they are regenerated and new made and by the same reason these Apostatized Christians who are become Iews and Pagans can never become Christians again unless they be rebaptized and that they cannot be because there is but one Baptism in the Christian Church and therefore though we could suppose that they should believe again and repent of their sins they could never recover a legal Right and Title to Mercy and the Promises of the Gospel-Covenant Faith and Repentance will not justifie a Heathen without Baptism for he that believes and is baptized shall be saved are the express terms of the Covenant and therefore the condition of Apostates is very hopeless who are relapsed into such a state that nothing but Baptismal Grace and Regeneration nothing but being new made and new born can save them and that they cannot have for they must not be baptized again A Christian must be but once born no more than a Man is which possibly is the reason why St. Peter tells us of such Apostates That their later end is worse with them than their beginning 2 Pet. 2. 20. for Iews and Heathens how wicked soever they were might wash away all their sins in Baptism but such Apostates are like a sow that was washed that returns again to her wallowing in the mire When they had washed away their Sins and Infidelity in Baptism they return to their forsaken Paganism again and lose the effect of their first Washing and there is no second Baptismal Washing to be had The Apostle does not say that it is impossible these Men should be saved but it is impossible they should be regenerated again by Baptism which is the only Gospel-state of Salvation If any such Men be saved they must be saved as I observed before by Uncovenanted Grace and Mercy they are in the state of Unbaptized Iews and Heathens not of Christians who have a Covenant-right to God's Promises and I would desire the baptized Atheists and Infidels of our Age to consider of this whose case is so very like this if it be not the same that it should make them afraid of setting up for Wits at such infinite peril of their Souls To apply this then to our present purpose What I have now discoursed plainly shews that a baptized Christian must not always expect to be saved by such Grace as saves and justifies in Baptism Baptismal Grace is inseparably annexed to Baptism and can be no more repeated than Baptism This makes the case of Apostates so desparate that Infidelity can be washed away only in Baptism and those who Apostatize after Baptism can never be rebaptized again and therefore can never have any Covenant-title to Pardon and Forgiveness And this proportionably holds good in our present case the Grace of Baptism washes away all the Sins of our past lives how many how great soever they have been only upon our profession of our Faith in Christ and Repentance of all our Sins and Vows of Obedience to the Laws of Christ for the future but whoever after Baptism lives a wicked and profligate life and hopes to be saved at last only by Faith in Christ and sorrow for his Sins and vows of living better when he is just a dying will be miserably mistaken for this is onely the Grace of Baptism which can never be repeated not the rule and measure whereby God will judge baptized Christians who have had time and opportunity of exercising those Christian Graces which they vowed at their Baptism A Man who retains the Faith of Christ though he lives wickedly does not forfeit his Baptism but shall be forgiven whenever he repents and forsakes his sins and lives a holy life but if he delays this so long that he has no time to amend his life that he can do nothing but be sorry for his sins and vow a new life I cannot promise him that this shall be accepted at the hour of death because the Gospel requires a Holy Life not meerly a Death-bed sorrow and remorse for Sin Sorrow for Sin and Vows of a new Life will be accepted at Baptism as the beginnings of a new Life but that is no reason why they should be accepted at our Death when they are only the forrowful conclusion of a wicked Life God will receive us to Grace and Mercy at Baptism upon our solemn Vows of living to him but he has no where promised to accept of our dying Vows instead of Holiness and Obedience as a recompence for a whole
Apostles this state of Penitence in some cases was continued many years in other cases such Sinners were never reconciled till the hour of death Now if they had thought as many among us now do that sorrow for Sin and the vows of Obedience do immediately obtain our Pardon from God for sins committed after Baptism it is not imaginable why they should have imposed such a long and severe Discipline on Penitents If they believed God had forgiven them why should not the Church forgive them and receive them them to her Communion again upon their promises of amendment without such a long trial of their reformation But it is evident they thought sins after Baptism not forgiven without actual reformation and therefore would not receive them to Communion again without a tried and visible reformation of their Lives We know what Disputes there were about this matter in the Primitive Church the ancient Discipline allowed but of one Repentance after Baptism and some would not allow of that in the case of Adultery Murder and Idolatry but denied the Authority of the Church to receive such Sinners to Communion again this was the pretence of Novatus's Schism and Tertullian after he turn'd Montanist said many bitter things against the Catholicks upon this argument which seemed to question the validity of Repentance it self after Baptism though it did reform Mens lives but though this was a great deal too much and did both lessen the Grace of the Gospel and the Authority which Christ had given to his Church yet it is evident that all this time they were very far from thinking that some dying Sorrows or dying Vows after a wicked Life would carry Men to Heaven and the Judgment of those first and purest Ages of the Church ought at least to make Men afraid of relying on such a Death-bed Repentance as they thought very ineffectual to save Sinners CHAP. IV. Concerning the Fear of Death and the Remedies against it DEath is commonly and very truly called the King of Terrors as being the most formidable thing to Humane Nature the love of Life and the natural principle of Self-preservation begets in all Men a natural Aversion against Death and this is the natural Fear of Dying this is very much encreased by a great fondness and passion for this World which makes such Men especially while they are happy and prosperous very unwilling to leave it and this is still encreased by a sence of Guilt and the fear of Punishment in the next World All these are of a distinct nature and require sutable Remedies and therefore I shall distinctly consider them I. The natural Fear of Death results from Self-preservation and the love of our own being for light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun 11 Eccles. 7. All Men love Life and the necessary consequence of that is to fear Death though this is rather a natural Instinct than the effect of Reason and Discourse There are great and wise Reasons why God should imprint this Aversion to Death on Humane Nature because it obliges us to take care of ourselves and to avoid every thing which will destroy or shorten our lives this in many cases is a great principle of Vertue as it preserves us from all fatal and destructive Vices it is a great Instrument of Government and makes Men afraid of committing such Villanies as the Laws of their Country have made capital and therefore since the natural Fear of Death is of such great advantage to us we must be contented with it though it makes the thoughts of dying a little uneasie especially if we consider that when this natural Fear of Death is not encreased by other causes of which more presently it may be conquered or allayed by Reason and wise Consideration for this is not so strong an Aversion but it may be conquered the miseries and calamities of this Life very often reconcile Men to Death and make them passionately desire it Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life to the bitter in soul which long for death but it cometh not and digg for it more then for hid treasures which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave 3 Job 20 21 22. My soul chuseth strangling and death rather than life I loath it I would not live alway let me alone for my days are vanity 7 Job 15 16. And if the sence of present Sufferings can conquer the fears of Death there is no doubt but the hope of immortal Life may do it also for the fear of Death is not an original and primitive Passion but results from the love of ourselves from the love of life and our own being and therefore when we can separate the fear of Death from Self-love it is easily conquered when Men are sensible that life is no kindness to them but only serves to prolong their misery they are so far from being afraid of Death that they court it and were they as thoroughly convinc'd that when they die Death will translate them to a more happy Life it would be as easie a thing to put off these Bodies as to change their Cloaths or to leave an old and ruinous House for a more beautiful and convenient Habitation If we set aside the natural Aversion and inquire into the reasons of this natural Fear of Death we can think of but these two Either Men are afraid that when they die they shall cease to be or at least they know not what they shall be and are unwilling to exchange this present life which they like very well for they know not what But now both these reasons of Fear are taken away by the Revelation of the Gospel which has brought Life and Immortality to light and when the reasons of our Fear are gone such an unaccountable Aversion and Reluctancy to Death signifies little more than to make us patient of living rather than unwilling to die for a Man who has such a new glorious World such a happy immortal Life in his view could not very contentedly delay his removal thither were not Death in the way which he naturally startles at and draws back from though his reason sees nothing frightful or terrible in it The plain and short account then of this matter is this We must not expect wholly to conquer our natural Aversion to Death St. Paul himself did not desire to be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 3 4. Were there not some remaining aversions to Death mixed with our hopes and desires of Immortality Martyrdom itself excepting the patient enduring the shame and the torments of it would be no Vertue but though this natural aversion to Death cannot be wholly conquered it may be extreamly lessened and brought next to nothing by the certain belief and expectation of a glorious Immortality and therefore the only way to arm ourselves against these natural fears of
lived very ungodly Lives and are now awakened by the approaches of Death to see an angry and provoked Judge an injured Saviour a righteous Tribunal and think they hear that fatal Doom and Sentence pronounced on them by their own Consciences Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels 3. Those who are doubtful of their own condition and are apt to fear the worst 1. As for the first sort of these Men who have sincerely endeavour'd to please GOD and have the testimony of their Consciences that in simplicity and godly sincerity they have had their conversation in this World Christ has delivered them from all their fears by his death upon the Cross and his Intercession for them at the right hand of God The best Men dare not stand the trial of strict and impartial Justice they are conscious to themselves of so many sins or such great imperfections and defects that their onely hope is in the Mercy of GOD thro' the Merits and Mediation of CHRIST and in this hope they can triumph over Death as St. Paul does O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to GOD who hath given us the victory by our Lord Iesus Christ who destroyed Sin and plucked out the sting of Death by his Death upon the Cross who triumphed over Death by his Resurrection from the Dead and is invested with Power to raise all his true Disciples from the Dead Is able to save to the uttermost all those that come unto GOD by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them This is the happy state of good Men when they come to die they can look into the other World without terrour where they see not a Court of Justice but a Throne of Grace where they see a Father not a Judge a Saviour who died for them and has redeemed them with his own Blood What a blessed Calm and Serenity possesses their Souls nay what Joy and Triumph transports them How do their souls magnifie the Lord and their spirits rejoyce in GOD their Saviour when they see him ready to pronounce them blessed and to set the Crown upon their heads Who would not die the death of the righteous and desire that his latter end may be like his What wise Man would not live the life of the Righteous that his latter end may be like his that in the agonies of Death and in the very jaws of the Grave no disturbed thoughts may discompose him no guilty fears distract him but he may go out of the World with all the joyful presages of eternal Rest and Peace 2. As for wicked Men who never concerned themselves with the thoughts of God and another World while they were in health many times a dangerous Sickness which gives them a nearer view of Death and Judgment awakens their Consciences and overwhelms them with the unsupportable terrors of future Vengeance then they begin to lament their ill-spent lives to tremble before that just and righteous Judge whom they have provoked by repeated Villanies whose Being they formerly denied or whose Power and Justice they desied now they cry passionately to Christ for Mercy and will needs have him to be their Saviour though they would not own him for their Lord nor submit to his Laws and Government now these Men are mighty earnest for comfort the Minister who was the subject of their Drollery before is sent for in great hast and it is expected from him that he should lull their Consciences asleep and send them quietly into another World to receive their doom there Now it is very fitting to let these Men know while they are well that there is no comfort to be had when they come to die For there is no peace saith my GOD to the wicked and no Man who knows them can speak Peace to them without making a new Gospel or corrupting the old one What I have already discourst concerning a Death-bed Repentance is a plain proof of this but though we set aside all that and proceed upon the common principle That a true Penitent whenever he sincerely repents thô it be upon his Death-bed after a long life of wickedness shall be pardoned and rewarded by God yet upon these principles it is impossible that a wicked Man when he comes to die should have any Comfort without a vain and Enthusiastick Presumption and the reason is very plain because it is impossible either for himself or others to judge whether his Repentance be true and sincere such a Repentance as if he were to live longer would reform his Life and bring forth the fruits of an universal Righteousness and it is agreed on all hands that no other Repentance but this can be accepted by God. Now it is absolutely impossible without a Revelation for any Man to know this who begins his Repentance upon a Death-bed he may feel indeed the bitter pangs and agonies of Sorrow and may be sincerely and heartily sorry that he has sinned And this every dying Sinner is who is sorrowful he is sincerely sorrowful that is he does not counterfeit a Sorrow but really feels it and I know nothing else to make Sorrow sincere but that it is real and not counterfeited and therefore to be sorrowful and to be sincerely sorrowful is the same thing And will any Man say that whoever is sorry for his sins when he comes to die shall be saved Then no Sinner can be damned who does not die an Atheist or stupid and distracted or suddenly without any warning for it is impossible for a Sinner who is in his wits and believes that wicked Men shall be eternally punished in the next World not to feel an amazing remorse and sorrow of mind when he sees himself just a falling into Hell. A dying Sorrow then though it may be sharp and severe almost to the degree of Amazement and Distraction and it is hard if such a Sorrow be not real and sincere is not saving Repentance and therefore though Sinners may feel themselves very heartily sorrowful this does not prove them to be true Penitents and yet this is the only evidence they can have of their Repentance and the only thing they rely on that they are sure their Sorrow is very sincere and I doubt not but it is for all true Sorrow is sincere but Sinners who are very sorry for their sins may be damned Since then sorrow for Sin is the onely evidence such Men can have of the sincerity of their Repentance let us consider whether the meer dying sorrows of Sinners be any evidence at all of this or what kind of evidence it is True Repentance does at least include a change of Mind a turning from our sins to God a deep sence of the evil of Sin and an abhorrance of ourselves for it a great reverence for God and for his Laws as